Partners in posturing

WHEN it comes to the US federal budget, what consistently unites Democrats and Republicans is their common capacity to lie to themselves, lie to the public and postpone any serious discussion of the central issues of government spending and taxes. I use the word "lie" reluctantly because it is an unforgiving moral marker. Still, it is the correct word.

Let's review the cruel budget math. Since 1965, the federal government has annually spent about one-fifth of America's national income; that's 20 per cent of GDP. Three realities now threaten this crude stability.

First, we are an ageing society. From 2010 to 2030, the 65-and-over population grows a projected 85 per cent, from 40 million to 74 million. Under current policies, spending on the elderly - mainly Social Security, Medicare and long-term care under Medicaid - inexorably rises as a share of national income and the budget. In 2014, these three programmes already represented US$1.7 trillion of the US$3.5 trillion of annual federal spending.